Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 2 (Stockdale).djvu/308

252 ever, be allowed, that this contest was owing to the imprudence of one of our men, who, wishing to keep the Caledonians at a distance, had pointed his piece at them, which went off, through his aukwardness.

8th. General Dentrecasteaux gave the command of the Esperance to Dauribeau.

I was very busy during the greater part of the day, at a work which was indispensably necessary for the preservation of my collections. In the afternoon I went on shore, and soon after I perceived a number of the islanders who had attacked our fishermen, in order to carry off both the net and the fish that were caught. We were obliged to fire at least twenty musket shot before they could be entirely dispersed. They stood firm on the shore the whole time, returning our musketry with their slings, a stone from one of which wounded the master-gunner of the Esperance seriously in the arm; they then gave way, but in a few seconds returned anew to the attack; however, when they perceived two of their number fall, in consequence of our fire, and wounded so as to be scarcely able to crawl to the neighbouring wood, they were seized with a general panic, and fled, nor did any others venture to renew the attack.

At the same time that this encounter began,